© 2018 Greg & Sylvia RAY

Newcastle, NSW, Australia

Read more about the article Governor Macquarie’s chest: an extraordinary colonial relic.

Governor Macquarie’s chest: an extraordinary colonial relic.

THE feathers of the birds lying side by side in the box seem almost as fresh and bright as if they'd been trapped yesterday, rather than preserved with arsenic two centuries ago. There are about 80 of them: a tawny frogmouth, a vivid kingfisher, parrots, a regent bowerbird and many more. Some of the drawers in the Macquarie Chest. Photo by Sylvia Ray . Seashells, arranged in geometric patterns by an unknown hand on the strange, wild shores of a new-found country, gleam in their drawers as though just gathered from the beach. Every drawer in this plain-looking wooden chest reveals peculiar…

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Read more about the article Remembering C.K. Thompson, Newcastle journalist and author

Remembering C.K. Thompson, Newcastle journalist and author

Many Australians of a certain age will remember C.K. Thompson's books from their childhood. Thin little hardcover volumes of stories about Australian animals and birds, they were common in school libraries. It couldn't be said that they were great literature, and even among the work of other Australian children's authors they didn't rate with the books of Patricia Wrightson, Nan Chauncy or Colin Thiele. But they were popular, and they may have helped inculcate an interest in nature among young readers. . Growing up in the 1960s I was aware of these books. One or two…

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Read more about the article Great War treasures of Newcastle’s Christ Church Cathedral
Newcastle's Christ Church Cathedral in June 1979. Photo by Doug Brown

Great War treasures of Newcastle’s Christ Church Cathedral

From our book, The Hunter Region in The Great War The Church of England played an important role in Australia and no less in Newcastle at the time of the Great War of 1914-1918. People turned to their church leaders to help them see and understand moral dimensions to great events and they gathered as congregations to share good times and bad.While many churches across the Hunter retain relics of the Great War, the collection in Newcastle’s Christ Church Cathedral is almost certainly the most significant. Part of The Warrior's Chapel. Photo by Sylvia Ray The…

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